Ultrarunners win gold
“WE are up there with the world’s best.”
Nick Bester was perhaps being a little too modest. Moments after the South African men’s team he manages won the gold prize at the IAU World 50km Championships in Brasov, Romania, yesterday, Bester’s excitement was somewhat contained.
He should have been jumping for joy and he should have said “We are the best in the world.” After all they were the best team out of the 27 participating countries, hence their gold medal. Team South Africa finished in a combined time of 8:28:36. Germany were in second spot overall following their 8:35:52, while the Great Britain and Northern Ireland took home bronze with their 8:41:00.
Good as their run was, Bester had hoped for individual honours, and a first-place finish by one of his team members would have had him walking on cloud nine.
Still, a runners-up berth – by Lungile Gongqa – and three places in the top six of arguably the most competitive championships since their inception confirmed South Africa’s standing as a world leader in ultra-marathon running.
“This was an extremely competitive event. We had a massive 17 athletes complete the race in under three hours. That speaks to a very, very fast race and four of our six runners were in that group,” Bester said via telephone yesterday.
Gongqa finished in second place, 44 seconds behind Spanish winner Iraitz Orrispide in 2:48:26.
Comrades Marathon champion Edward Mothibi was the second best South African home. The man popularly referred to as Slender finished fifth in a time of 2:49:49. Just like at the famous KwaZulu-Natal ultra, Bongmusa Mthembu was hot on Mothibi’s heels, the three-time Comrades champion placing sixth a mere 34 seconds later behind his teammate. Joseph Manyedi ran an impressive 2:51:46 for 11th spot.
The race was not so good for Comrades Down Run record holder David Gatebe and successive three-time Loskop Marathon winner Charles Tjiane. The duo finished 21st and 30th, with times of 3:02:42 and 3:07:16 respectively.
It was also not as good a day out for the six-member women’s team as they missed out on a podium place, finishing in fourth place out of the 29 nations.